In the last couple of days, the front pages have lit up with news about Prince Harry\u2019s appointment as Chief Impact Officer at BetterUp, a $1bn Silicon Valley startup providing professional coaching and mental health advice. But how does a Chief Impact Officer demonstrate impact?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Publicly, BetterUp says that it hopes Prince Harry\u2019s role will help clients with \u201cproactive coaching\u201d for personal development, as well as helping to advocate for better mental health. But behind the scenes, BetterUp\u2019s objectives are likely to be much broader. It\u2019s possible that the startup is looking for future investment, or even an eventual sale. For certain the company wants to expand its client base \u2013 and view Prince Harry\u2019s appointment as a route to powering this growth by \u2018expanding BetterUp\u2019s global community\u2019. And importantly, senior execs at BetterUp will want to see swathes of positive media coverage that will ultimately help fulfil both of these goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For BetterUp\u2019s PR team, an extremely exciting time is likely to also be a complex one. When Prince Harry joins your team, how do you go about measuring the impact? For us, the secret is not to be blinded by the short term. As we\u2019ve seen over the past days, media coverage about BetterUp is through the roof. Every TV station, radio programme and newspaper has picked up on the story \u2013 and commentators are discussing at length what it means for both Harry and the life coaching industry. But an initial spike in press coverage, web hits and social conversations don\u2019t always translate into measurable results for a business in the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, to analyse whether Harry\u2019s appointment is a short-term publicity stunt, or is going to deliver long-term results, the team will have to look beyond the headlines. And the first place to start is to see whether their messages are permeating the wider buzz. Is the social media chatter about Harry\u2019s personal life, for example, or is BetterUp\u2019s brand proposition being talked about too? BetterUp\u2019s PR team will also need to work out whether they\u2019re reaching the right audiences \u2013 be that investors or customers themselves. For example, is headline BBC News coverage really going to influence execs in Silicon Valley? Maybe \u2013 but you need to look hard at its readership to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second port of call is to look at the long-term fallout of the news. PR teams and senior executives alike will want to know how the news has endured past the initial days. Are those first breadcrumbs generating longer-term interest? And in addition, PR teams will need to plan how to capitalise on the news longer term. Should they be following up the initial sweep of coverage with a campaign to lifestyle press, to directly reach those looking for help? Or should they be talking to the investor-focused media to make the business case for a cash injection?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know that BetterUp wants Harry to help advocate for better mental health, so the team will need to look at whether this is working \u2013 through consumer research and sentiment testing. And to see whether Harry\u2019s appointment has impacted positively on the company, they may want to consider tools like NetPromoter scores, to measure and monitor brand sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, even when Prince Harry is on your side, measurement and evaluation is still important \u2013 perhaps even more so. We know that as well as looking at the long term impact of the appointment, BetterUp\u2019s PR team need to have benchmarked how they were viewed before the news \u2013 it\u2019s no good trying to look at where you\u2019re going until you know where you\u2019re starting from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, measurement enthusiasts might be rubbing their hands in glee, sure that if Prince Harry is looking at the \u2018impact\u2019 of BetterUp\u2019s work, then the wider industry must follow. Of course, we don\u2019t have Harry\u2019s job description on hand, so we don\u2019t really know what impact means in this case, but it\u2019s true that the appointment brings the role of measurement and evaluation to the foreground. This is great news, but we must guard against \u2018impact\u2019 becoming a buzzword which is talked about at length but becomes meaningless, or which teams think they\u2019ve addressed by presenting big coverage totals or readership figures. And, as we\u2019ve seen from this example, meaningful measurement takes work \u2013 requiring the same effort and commitment as delivering the comms and marketing activity itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To really measure impact, we know that companies must focus on looking hard at what their objectives are and how PR and marketing are delivering against them \u2013 ultimately measuring how and why activity is working, or indeed not working well. It will be interesting to watch how Prince Harry\u2019s appointment shifts brand awareness for BetterUp for the long term \u2013 and what his role will mean for the company and the wider industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the last couple of days, the front pages have lit up with news about Prince Harry\u2019s appointment as Chief Impact Officer at BetterUp, a $1bn Silicon Valley startup providing professional coaching and mental health advice. But how does a Chief Impact Officer demonstrate impact? Publicly, BetterUp says that it hopes Prince Harry\u2019s role will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":3124,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[84],"the_measurement_standard":[56],"creator":[207],"class_list":["post-3092","tms","type-tms","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-commentary","the_measurement_standard-commentary","creator-orla-graham"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n